Sam "SBF" Bankman-Fried, the embattled founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has been revealed to have expressed disdain for regulators despite publicly supporting cryptocurrency regulations to protect customers. This revelation came to light during his ongoing criminal trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon questioned SBF about his previous statements on Twitter regarding supporting blockchain regulation for customer protection. However, SBF claimed not to remember his past statements. Sassoon then probed further, asking if he privately held negative views about regulators. In response, SBF admitted to expressing derogatory sentiments in private, indicating that he once stated, "fuck the regulators."
Furthermore, SBF's dissatisfaction extended to the crypto community, as he referred to a "small minority" of individuals on crypto Twitter as "stupid assholes." This contrasted with his previous public appearance before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, where he testified about cryptocurrency regulation in 2021.
Sassoon also questioned SBF about his perception of regulations as primarily public relations efforts. SBF acknowledged making statements that could be interpreted as similar to that perspective. He also asserted that helping draft cryptocurrency regulations benefited FTX by enabling the exchange to gain market share over its rival, Binance.
Before FTX's eventual collapse in November 2022, it was reported that the exchange, along with its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research, held nearly $15 billion in customer deposits, with a significant portion of these funds missing. SBF mentioned that on November 7, 2022, net customer withdrawals amounted to $4 billion, which was 100 times the average daily trading volume, leading to a severe liquidity crisis. Binance's attempted acquisition of FTX fell through after the exchange examined FTX's books and discovered inconsistencies.
